i have had this book since it was released, which was before i started taking classes. it is not the best step by step for beginners. you do need a little more insight on the guns before working on them, but to read from a master all his little stories of past experiences is priceless. i gave it 4 out of 5 stars because you do need to know how your firearm comes apart before reading the book, but once you know how you 1911 comes apart and goes back together you'll love the info in the book.

unless you already know all the parts and peices of a gun and how to take it down to exploded view level of dissasembly and put it back this manual is worthless, i got a willson combat trigger for my 1911 i turned to to the section for installing it, it says remove trigger and install new one and went in detail over how to file it down if it didn't fit right but nothing on how to actually get the trigger out or get it back in, same thing with my revolver it says to remove the cylinder but dosen't say how to remove the cylinder, its like a chiltons manual that says remove transmission but dose not go any further than that, this book is fine if you already know what your doing but if you know what your doing then you would not need a manual to begin with

This book has projects that are truly practical, and you can even do them in your own gunsmithing shop at home.

I'm sure the info is okay, and the auther seems like a really nice and experienced person.. BUT, the writing style makes it difficult for me to follow.. Some sections of the book literally have no paragraphs- just pages filled with margin to margin text! Other sections have a paragraph every other sentence!! I'm not some kinda grammer buff or anything, but I do get frustrated when the formatting of text is so bad that the text is difficult to follow or read! I mean, we pay good money for books- they should be done right.

Additionally, the focus of what is being talked about jumps around too much- he'll be talking about doing some gun mod or other, then throw in an little side story that's not 100% relavent, and then he won't tie it back into what he was talking about- he'll just move on to a new, unrelated topic! It's like stream of thought poetry in some parts, and is so hard to get through that I've stopped trying to read this book for a while- maybe I'll come back to it.

I want to like this book- it seems like the author has a lot he can teach, but I just can't stick to reading it because of the style. I didn't want to post this review because I hate to smash someone's work. But, I bought this book based on the other, glowing reviews- and I think people considering purchasing this book should know the whole picture.

An excellent book with truly practical advise - projects that can be done in a home gunsmithing workshop!

With no experience, orther than mechanical competence and some machine shop knowledge (which is not required), this book took me from zero experience, to purchasing $100 of tools, to a successful trigger job on a new revolver, with notably happy results. I am eager to try more projects because of this book.